Why is the Manipulation skill locked behind the crafting quests?

[Eien713]

I'm not a seasoned crafter, but I know this skill is extremely useful when crafting high-level recipes. I was planning to participate in the Ishgard restoration with a job that I don't usually use. I gathered/bought the mats I needed, I crafted collectables and upgraded the tools via white scrips, and then I sat down and started crafting. To my horror, I got the huge red error message saying Manipulation wasn't a valid skill name or something. I kid you not, I felt like someone had punched me in the gut and I fell into despair and considered giving up (since I'm a bit late to the party as I was working on a different job at the beginning of rankings). I had to waste so much time rushing through the stupid quests (starting at the level 15 one) to get the damn Manipulation skill.

Now the question plaguing me is: Why the heck is this skill literally the only skill still locked behind the quests? The quests prior to SB are so darn tedious, and the stories are rarely interesting. All the other skills are now ones you get based on your level (correct me if I'm wrong), so why not give Manipulation the same treatment?

EDIT:
Because people don't bother skimming through the discussion which is only 3 pages at the moment of writing this edit, and they immediately jump to the usual "Lazy person who wants everything handed on a plate" conclusion, no. I leveled my crafters fair and square since ARR. I did all the necessary quests back in the day to get the useful cross-skills crafting needed. So please spare me the same hasty and judgemental answers in this thread. If you're not gonna add something useful to the conversation, please move along.

[Vickii]

I don’t know ‘why’ it’s still locked if others are not. But honestly myself having levelled them all much earlier, I actually liked getting better from actually doing crafting and job quests rather than just buying and macroing everything.

I’d say more stuff should be locked behind job quests imo.

[Eien713]

I don’t know ‘why’ it’s still locked if others are not. But honestly myself having levelled them all much earlier, I actually liked getting better from actually doing crafting and job quests rather than just buying and macroing everything.

I’d say more stuff should be locked behind job quests imo.

I did the LTW and GSM quests back when the skills were locked behind the quests. I crafted all the turn-ins I needed myself. I honestly can't say it made any difference at all when it comes to my skills as a crafter. I just found the quests so tedious, which is why I didn't work on the quests of the jobs I wasn't using much.

[Risvertasashi]

It wasn't, once. It seems SE didn't like crafters not doing their quests, so they put an important skill behind it.

[Eien713]

It wasn't, once. It seems SE didn't like crafters not doing their quests, so they put an important skill behind it.

I wouldn't have minded this... had the quests not been so boring and mind-numbing.

[Kes13a]

I dont mind having to put some work in to get something useful.

[Rhus]

They practically hand you crafters on a leve 80 plate now. 1 quest for a skill isn’t much to ask

[Risvertasashi]

They practically hand you crafters on a leve 80 plate now. 1 quest for a skill isn’t much to ask

It's a lot more than one quest even for one class. And then you have to do the hours of questing for each class you want Manipulation on, so it's not a one time unlock either.

[tdb]

On the other hand the quests give sizeable exp boosts too. Up to and including HW you can buy the required items from the MB if you're feeling lazy, and starting from StB the items are dead easy to craft anyway. If you skip all the cutscenes they don't take too much time either.

[Eien713]

It's a lot more than one quest even for one class. And then you have to do the hours of questing for each class you want Manipulation on, so it's not a one time unlock either.

Exactly! And getting the mats you need to craft the turn-ins takes soooo much time too. I hate throwing money away, and the mats can be super expensive on the MB or the amount can be waaaay more than what you need. I totally wouldn't have minded doing all the quests had they been like the SB ones. I mean, one quest even needs the level III book for the recipe.